Sea kittens: as adorable as they are delicious

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From the archives...Carthago Delenda Est?

I wrote and published this next bit on Facebook last week. A lot of people were badgering me to give my opinion on the current war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, so I did just that. I'm sure the following isn't what they expected, because I basically suggest that the world take a laissez-faire approach to the conflict until one side wins decisively...well, it sounds better in its original context. Here it is:

Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder, a Roman statesman who lived during the Punic Wars against the North African city-state of Carthage, would often end his speeches before the Senate with the phrase "in conclusion, Carthage must be destroyed." During the Second Punic War, the famous Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca was defeated decisively at the battle of Zama in 202 B.C., effectively ending Carthage's influence. Just to make sure, the Romans fought the Third Punic war from 149 to 146 B.C., which consisted of an extended siege of Carthage and that city and its society's final destruction. From there on out, North Africa was basically pacified and the Roman Republic, later the Empire, exercised a mainly peaceful influence over the region.

So....

Judea was a different story. A somewhat later province of Rome, the Hebrew people who inhabited the region (modern Israel) refused to accept Roman rule throughout its time as a province. The Jewish people objected religiously to its pagan masters and politically to its absolutist control and overseas occupation. The Jews revolted on several occasions, making the Governorship of the province a royal pain in the ass to any Roman patrician sent to fill the position. The last straw was the Bar Kokhba revolt in 132 A.D., where Simon bar Kokhba commanded an insurrection against the Romans, driving them out temporarily and declaring a new Kingdom of Israel. Simon bar Kokhba was declared a Messiah by the Jewish community, though shunned by the new Christian sects. The state lasted three years until in 135 A.D. the Romans returned and with a heavy material and human cost recaptured Judea. Determined never to let this happen again, the emperor Hadrian banished the Jews (killing many of them, selling many more into slavery, though many Jews who slipped through the bureaucracy either fled or remained in the region) and renamed Jerusalem "Aelia Capitolina" (after both himself and Jupiter Capitolinus) and the province "Palastina" (or Palestine) out of spite.

Fast forward to today. From Roman spite springs one of the most contentious ethno-religious political conflicts in history. Back and forth the Palestinians and Israelis go, and it's difficult to ascertain who actually has a true historical right to the region. In my opinion only the final arbiter of armed struggle will determine that, and the U.N. and the United States have only succeeded in one thing: prolonging the conflict beyond what it ever needed to be. By forcing peace on either side, the international community is only asking for more trouble, because the root cause (land claims) hasn't been properly mediated and the main propaganda fuel (organized religion) can never be dealt with because both parties are highly theological societies. So the U.N. and U.S. need to do something that I'm sure they will find difficult but must be done: step back and let history unwrap itself.

In order for this conflict to end one side needs to vanish. Each side has its Cato, surely, and we ("we" being the West) cannot be so arrogant as to think that we can fix this. One side needs to destroy the other, and in modern thinking this is considered to be absolutely horrible, but hey, I've always thought of myself as a living anachronism.

As for myself, I choose to stand back and watch either side give the other the Carthage treatment.

Introducing....the Semi-Daily Mashup!

Hello to all, and welcome to my return to the blogging world. I've abandoned my old-timey political pundit blog, America's Glory, for a little more all-around blogging experience. My ever evolving political views will be making regular appearances, along with all sorts of other general social criticisms and commentary, reviews of bits of media, amusing thoughts and general banter for the inquisitive soul. A real mash of pointless shit that might entertain or get your brain gurgling.

One of these days I'll be contributing to a friend's B-Movie review blog, Radiation Scarred Reviews, so keep an eye on that one. There's some good stuff there already, as young as it is.

Well, keep an eye out for updates on a semi-daily basis.